Our round-robin railroad group has been working on large 3-rail “O” gauge layout. It has a long (about 8 feet) grade that climbs to cross over a river bridge and mostly parallels an edge of the layout - leaving a problem for the scenery along the edge. We decided to build a Styrofoam ...

Keep the branch structure of super tree material free of leaves by rolling the trees in a shallow pan of glue mixture rather than dunking the entire tree. Then pour the leaf material over the tree. The exterior of the tree will hold the leaf material and the inner branch structure wil...

This video series, hosted by Michael Gross, teaches you simple how-to techniques to take an HO scale electric train set and make it a scenic model railroad. This episode discusses scenery techniques....

This video series, hosted by Michael Gross, teaches you simple how-to techniques to take an HO scale electric train set and make it a scenic model railroad. This episode discusses additional scenery topics....

For those with limited painting skills, applying trees to the backdrop to transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional scenery can be daunting. With the judicious application of scissors to sponges, simple shapes may be created to allow you to stamp trees onto your backdrop....

Some years ago I wrote a brief piece for The RPO relating information I had picked up at a national convention. It focused on making sure that details on the layout fit the time frame modeled, and gave approximate times that hay stacks went from stack or square bales to rolled, or whe...

The figures on the History Museum project are from a kit of 120 unpainted figures. Figures can be purchased already painted, but are often very costly ($1 to $3 each). I prefer to purchase the unpainted, which come in several kits: trades people, passengers, drivers, pedestrians, etc....

Well, are you getting “snow blind” yet from all those white rocks that you have made since my article about rock casting? Don’t you think it is about time to add some color? Adding a little color will bring the rock castings to life. The colors add shadows and highli...